Author: Joy Murray

I'm a 60 year old artist in Memphis, Tennessee. I spend my life trying to catch stories, give them form, color and light, then send back out into the world.

Playing With My Food

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I got a two legged carrot and that started the whole thing:

Just an innocent if odd carrot and I had to start playing with my food
mostly normal studies of the vegetable gave way to the carrot hero
Wearing the distinguished purple carrot, our hero tells his tale with pride

I wanted to revise the hero and the story a bit, but my husband thought I’d played with my food quite enough. I think Old Two Legs will be dinner tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by 🙂

Characters for June

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After spending last month drawing a doodle a day, I decided to keep up the momentum and use my daily drawing time to work on figures, faces and characters.  I want to do cartoony characters, as well as more detailed drawings.  I swing from wanting to do highly realistic renderings to wanting to make quick energetic characters.  Then some days, who walks on to the page but a fish in boots. 

I usually draw every day anyway.  This is a way to focus and work on my problem areas.  I resisted joining a challenge because I want to be flexible and force my imagination to come up with a daily theme.  I’m not quite coming up with a daily theme, but so far, I’m bumbling along with the focused daily draw.

For the last doodle of May, I did this self portrait character:

Ink and colored pencil

The second day I drew from a photograph of a model in book. 

Pencil and colored pencil
Blue fine line sharpie

A girl in my neighborhood — pencil and colored pencil

Freckles are hard to make look like freckles aren’t they?  Sepia Micron

And today, a quick gesture at a community meeting in ball point pen

I was actually a little disappointed that no distinct anthromorphic character showed up in my head this week, but I got a copy of Bert Dodson’s Keys to Drawing from the Imagination and I feel like something interesting will pop into my head soon.  If you haven’t see this book, or his other one, Keys to Drawing, it’s a wonderful reference and has great exercises in it to help get your drawing and imagination muscles pumped up.  Keys to Drawing and Everyday Matters by Danny Gregory are responsible for making me think I could draw in the first place, so blame them.  Or better yet, start drawing and join the party.
I’m also working with an 89 year old friend of mine, Nita, to write a poem a day. Nothing grand, just a few lines on paper first thing in the morning.  It’s amazing what you can do once you set your mind to it and you have a friend checking up on you.  I’ll share a few poems before the month’s over. 
June’s going to be a great month!

A Poem for Memorial Day

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Memorial Day
by Joy Murray

To those who marched off boldly
Determined to free the world,
To those who stumbled into service
Seeking a better life,
To those who could no longer sit
Anxiously in the sidelines,
To those who only wanted to stitch the
Wounded back together,
To those who fell because
They lived along
The quickest path
To victory,
We remember.  We regret.
We hope to not repeat.
Yet, even as we mourn,
A catchy tune
Lures us into war’s insatiable jaw.
I wish you peace in your after life.
A cool drink and quiet audience
For your story
And all eternity
To dream in peace.

Bridge Meadows: My Home Sweet Home

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My dragon story and story friends

I haven’t written about my community Bridge Meadows in a while.  They’ve made a new video about it and I thought I’d share it with you.  It’s posted on their Facebook page, but it’s a public page so you should be able to get to it without being a member of Facebook.  There’s a shot of me reading the very funny picture book Socksquath by Frank Dormer, which represents what I do in the community.  I read stories to and with kids.  I also do a lot of drawing and encouraging their creative sides.  Everyone here knows there’s no such thing as a bad drawing.  Yesterday, one of the girls here told me, “There’s no such thing as a bad child.”  Amen to that!  The kids in our community have been through a lot in their young years, but each one of them is a treasure and full of the potential that every human is born with.  Here’s the link to the video: 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=604397772906379

We have a great community space where all the buildings and houses open up to a courtyard.  My husband and I live in a small apartment that is frequently visited by children of all ages.  One of the great things is that the kids here are used to being around people with disabilities.  My walker is a popular item.

We all get to have fun with crayons, paints and our imaginations.
I’ve made great friends with people of all ages and some of the elders even like my children’s stories.  Nita, my 89 year old neighbor, just joined me in a challenge to write a poem every day in June.  And if I’m every blue, my young friends always know what to do:
photo by J.E. Underwood

If you want more information on Bridge Meadows, just ask.  And thanks for stopping by my blog 🙂